Accra, July 11, GNA - Dr Akwasi Aidoo, Executive Director of the Trust Africa Foundation, has underscored the need for Ghanaians to harness the contributions and insights of past leaders of this country. Dr Aidoo, who made the call at a lecture in Accra, was of the view that this had become necessary because the nation's past leaders genuinely sacrificed so much of themselves and their families, and never ceased striving to make common the cause of the rural and urban poor. He was delivering the Third Annual Busia Memorial Lecture at the British Council Hall on Monday, as part of activities organised by the Busia Foundation to mark the birthday celebration of the late Dr Kofi Abrefa Busia, Ghana's Second Prime Minister, which falls on July 11. Dr Aidoo, who on the topic: "The Challenges of the Development in Africa and the Relevance of Dr Busia", said he was not only an active and committed politician, but an accomplished academic.

He regretted, however that, Ghanaians had reflected far too little on the full meaning of the life of Dr Busia, his work, and his spirit in terms of the courageous ideas and values by which, he tenaciously stood, lived, and ultimately passed away for.

In Dr Aidoo's view therefore, in order to fully appreciate the relevance of Professor Busia's ideas, "we need to take a hard look at the challenges of African development."

He highlighted three of the challenges, and named them as the yawning gap between the rural population and the urban poor on one hand, and the very few, who had wealth and unimpeded access to infrastructure on the other hand; Africa's marginalized status in the global economy; and the intractable violent conflicts on the continent.

Turning to Dr Busia's belief in education, Dr Aidoo stated that, as a strong believer in the power of education, Ghana's second Prime Minister set about conquering its heights, researching it, reflecting on its relevance, and taking steps that were politically very risky to reform the country's educational system.

Dr Aidoo mentioned the Students' Loan Scheme, the Aliens Compliance Order, the Devaluation of the Cedi, the Problems with the Trades Union Congress, the so-called Apollo 568 and the Sallah Case; and the Call for Dialogue with the Apartheid Government of South Africa as some of the risky policies of Dr Busia when he was a Prime Minister He said even though most of these policies made him unpopular, thus having adverse effects on his government, Dr Busia was bold, courageous and committed enough to implement them.

Dr Aidoo pointed out that due to his deep belief in the universal logic of human dignity, although a deep Christian, the "Oxford-African" as Dr Busia was affectionately called, never sought to impose his religious beliefs and convictions on anyone.

Explaining, Dr Aidoo stated that it was on record that in conducting the research for one of his seminal books, "Urban Churches in Britain", Dr Busia insisted on having non-Christians constitute half of the research team.

"We have no excuse not to honour this great son of our land, who sacrificed for us. The least we can do is to acknowledge our debt to him, for he deserves our unalloyed recognition".

He suggested that not only should an educational institution be named after Dr Busia, but he also deserved that a professorial chair in one of the country's universities be named after him. Mr J. E. K. Aggrey-Orleans, Chairperson of the Busia Foundation said it was a monument to one of the great minds Ghana had ever produced, and therefore, called on well-meaning Ghanaians to lent financial support to the foundation.

Mr Mac Manu, National Chairman of the New Patriotic Party, used the occasion to donate a Gold Cup to the Foundation to be competed for in charity matches towards raising funds to support its programmes. 11 July 06